Kolleen's impressions
Ms. de Albuquerque opened the meeting by highlighting that sanitation is ‘the most off-track MDG’ and a largely ‘invisible issue’ noting that viewing sanitation in the human rights context is important as it ‘enables duty bearers to understand their obligations and rights holders to understand their rights.’
Mr. Jon Lane, Executive Director of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC), then discussed the achievements and challenges related to sanitation. Mr. Lane noted that sanitation is one of the most critical indicators of a life of dignity and heath and asserted that ‘if we do not get sanitation right it impacts heavily on all of the other MDGs.’ Lane focused on 4 key ‘areas’ that benefit from sanitation; health (1/2 of the hospital beds in Africa are occupied by people with sanitation related diseases); economics (for every $1 invested in sanitation $9 dollars are generated or saved – mostly because of the time that working people do not spend ill); gender equity (privacy, dignity, safety and women’s education) and; the environment (sustainability, pollution).
Lane asserted, “There is one thing that I will admit is even more important than sanitation and that is women’s education. But how can girls go to school when there are no toilets?”
Answering the self-posed question of why has sanitation not been adequately addressed, Lane reminded the audience that sanitation is a complex problem that requires multiple stakeholders and strong political leadership. Lane noted that heads of state and government are beginning to get involved but that more would need to be done to cultivate leadership – ‘hard-working, plain-speaking leadership which would transform sanitation to a ‘normal’ (easily discussable, non-invisible) human economic activity.
Following Mr. Lane’s presentation, Ms. de Albuquerque discussed the human rights law and practice related to obligations on sanitation, drawing on a matrix created by her team that documents international, regional and local references to legal obligations on sanitation (matrix available below), following which comments and questions were requested from the floor on both presentations.
Delegates from France, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Bangladesh, Portugal, U.K., Singapore, South Africa, Angola, The Center for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), AquaFed, U.N. Habitat, Ecumenical Water Network and Sulahb International all made comments or presented questions for other delegates or the presenters.[1] Of particular interest was the statement from the U.K. delegate which, while highlighting that the U.K fully recognizes the scale of the problem and views the expansion of sanitation access as a top priority, the U.K. does not recognize the human right to sanitation ‘either by itself or as a part of other rights.’ The U.K. delegate also noted that it is not clear that a recognition of the right to sanitation is the best way to accelerate progress on sanitation access and that in fact, it could undermine current projects and lead to more supply-led interventions.
Virginia Bras Gomes, a member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights responded to comments from the floor and discussed the human rights conceptual framework with regard to sanitation. Ms. Gomes urged courageous countries to come forward in support of the human rights obligations related to sanitation and praised the processes that have taken place in this vein at the national and regional level.
After a lunch break, comments/questions from Bulgaria, Germany, the Spanish Alliance for Water and Action Contre La Faim were submitted.
On behalf of FAN, I thanked the Independent Expert and her team and more progressive country governments for their recognition and work on human rights obligations related to sanitation. In addition, I addressed some of the comments of the U.K. representatives and other delegates who were more ambiguous about their support for the recognition of sanitation as a human right. I described some of the case studies presented at the 5th World Water Forum by FAN members who are using the human right to water and sanitation (RTWS) to accelerate and support their work and the positive impact of using this framework even where RTWS is far from being a recognized legal right. I also noted that those who are working directly on sanitation access and those who lack adequate and safe access would likely also disagree that recognition of these rights would impede progress.
Dr Jackie Dugard, Senior Researcher for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in Johannesburg, South Africa, addressed the floor next and agreed with these points, further noting that a human rights approach includes things that a development approach does not – that it is definitely demand-led – and that the human rights approach adds tremendous value in particular where development is not taking approaches that focus on marginalized populations.
The Independent Expert adjourned the meeting, noting that she would welcome further contributions and perspectives on the human rights obligations related to sanitation.
Throughout May and early June, FAN collected input from members and sent a letter to the Independent Expert. Read FAN's letter to the Independent Expert following the consultation [PDF].
Read country position papers of the US [PDF] and UK [PDF] submitted during the consultation.
[1] Please make inquiries about the specific content of these contributions to Kolleen Bouchane